The transportation giant has always operated its medical procedure on one assumption - a licensed B.C. doctor is on board.

With over 2,000 people on each sailing ferry staff don't usually have a problem finding a physician, in fact often they see "one or two or three doctors come forward," said ferry spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.

But on March 4, 2009, when a 14-year-old girl went into anaphylactic shock in the middle of the Georgia Strait, there were no doctors on board. The one thing she needed most to survive, no one had the authority to administer.

Michelle Chowns remembers that day with clarity, because when the ferry docked two years ago, paramedics said her daughter was minutes away from dying.

It was a close call she doesn't want to see repeated, but despite her best efforts to advocate for better training or new policy, B.C. Ferries continues to stand behind its medical procedure.

Incident reports from B.C. Ferries say Cheyanne had trouble breathing and was brought to the first aid room. Her tongue, lips and throat were swollen and a rash had spread from her chest and neck down to her arms.

Her limbs had also gone numb.

The chief steward paged passengers to see if any doctors were on board, but on that day, no one answered the call.

Staff has an emergency kit with the epinephrine Cheyanne needed, but without a doctor, the only thing they could do was give her oxygen and an antihistamine until paramedics took over in Nanaimo

I just don't get it. If someone needed CPR or had a bad cut and needed pressure on the injury site would we just stand by and say, oh well, here's the first aid kit but I'm waiting for the ok to use it. I'm curious if such senarios are similar for a diabetic person. If there is insulin available in a first aid situation and someone is diabetic and needs insulin do others also wait to administer it or do they go ahead and give it to the person?

This family sounds like ours, and yours and anybodies. You just never know. We can all so learn from this.
I so feel for this mom.

Quote:

It was the last thing Chowns expected to hear because doctors had never flagged her daughter, Cheyanne, as at risk for an allergic reaction. She was tested every six months. The teen had even eaten nuts before and never had the run of symptoms that were spreading rapidly throughout her body - from swelling and nausea to running eyes and nose.

When her daughters' guardian called to tell her what was happening, Chowns immediately gave permission for her daughter to have epinephrine. The symptoms were all too familiar having dealt with the reactions in her anaphylactic son.

A lot of people on board. I wonder who was the guardian? Very scary all around. There were probably lots of epi pens on board, just no one knew out in the public, I guess.

BC Ferries should follow WestJet's lead with access to the medical help which in the article said is for "sea and air". For anaphylactic reaction, why not say "Do we have a child care provider or teacher on board?" Chances are they would know how to administer an epi-pen!

_________________me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

I think that one of the problems with the ferries, is that they are stocked similar to an ambulance (or at least they used to be), with VIALS of epinephrine and needles, NOT epipens. In the case of an epipen, extremely simple to give - not so simple with a vial and a needle, especially if you need to calculate the appropriate dose. As we all know, the epipens have a dose range for weights, but you sure could give someone a honkin big dose of epinephrine from a vial......

Very good point. In 1981, I had an adrenalin kit which had two single doses of epinephrine with a needle. I would think the ferries could have that rather than a big bottle of epinephrine which they would have to figure out the correct dose.

The ferries carry a lot of people and a lot of food. With the mobility of passengers, I expect the likelihood of a reaction is as high as that of an airplane.

_________________me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

From her symptoms and what they told her mom she was, well, very close to dying. So this being a life and death situation why didn't the ferries announce they had a passenger in anaphylactic shock, would any passengers having an epipen please come to .....! If her guardian was there all the passenger with the epipen would have to do is ask this person for permission (if the guardian was worried about permission at this point) and jab!
I mean, life and death, not - give oxygen, cross fingers and hope that a slow traveling ferry makes it to land before a person dies.

DS was just 6 months old and even the JR epipen was too large a dose so for a few months we were given syringes with glass viles of epinephrine to carry Freaked me out. So I get that no one might have been able to measure a correct does. But if they could announce for a doctor why couldn't they announce for a fellow allergic passenger.

If they feel the need to carry epinephrine, they should keep it in an autoinjector form. The regular version in enough to handle a 250lb persons anaphylaxis, I imagine that it is enough to handle a person's heart attack or anything else they might require it for. Besides, how difficult is it to add this to their arsenal of drugs?

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